A GRANDDAD who was run over as his 4x4 was being stolen has revealed how he is still struggling to piece together his family’s shattered lives a year after the horrific incident.

Philip Stead, 51, nearly lost his life in the incident, which left him in a coma. It happened as his Mitsubishi pick-up was being driven off from his home in Felcourt Drive, Holme Wood, Bradford.

Police have not charged anyone and, 12 months later, Mr Stead and his wife Lorraine, 56, have spoken exclusively to the Telegraph & Argus in the hope that their story will prick someone’s conscience and help get them justice at last.

Mr Stead suffered a smashed pelvis, broken ribs, a punctured lung and terrible cuts when he was dragged under the wheels of his vehicle and into the road before the thief sped off leaving him for dead. His wife says the whole family is still feeling the sickening pain of what happened, but are sticking together in the hope the culprit will be caught.

Mr Stead, who is still in agony and takes 24 tablets a day, was confined to a wheelchair with a cage supporting his shattered pelvis and needing to wear a neckbrace which robbed him of being at his seventh grandchild’s birth a couple of weeks after he came out of hospital.

“He could not even hold her or give her a cuddle. It broke his heart but he is making up for it now,” said Mrs Stead, who compared the last year to being on a rollercoaster.

At 3.45am, Mr Stead had got up to go to work at Shipley-based Associated Waste Management (AWM). He went out to put the keys in the car and start the engine, before returning inside for a coffee and bringing it to the front door like he had for the last 12 years.

But he then noticed his car creeping forward and thought the handbrake was not on properly. He went round to the front to stop it rolling but saw someone sat in the driver’s seat. That person put his foot on the accelerator and went over him, dragging him across the road, on to a grass verge and trapping him against the kerb.

Neighbours heard the commotion and rang for an ambulance, which Mr Stead maintains probably saved his life. Doctors at Leeds General Infirmary put him in an induced coma and he had emergency surgery, being given a tracheotomy to help his breathing.

Mr Stead’s car was found abandoned one and a half miles away in Bell House Avenue, Bierley, hours after it was stolen. Police questioned three men but brought no charges, said Mr Stead, who is now back at work as a yard manager with AWM. The toll of what happened has hit the family hard and Mr Stead, who has four children, says people tell him it has changed the man he was.

“I don’t feel it or see it myself but I must have changed because my wife tells me I have. I believe her because I trust her and my workmates tell me I’m different too. I try to push what happened to the back of my mind but it won’t ever go away. I could go and hide behind a rock but I won’t.”

Mrs Stead said: “He’s not 100 per cent, he’s still in lots of pain. He’s back at work but he had to because money was getting short. He’s shattered though. He was always such a right grafter before. It’s frustrating for him now. He wants to do things, he wants to be busy but he just can’t. As a family we’ve all rallied round but it’s hard. It makes me feel mad they never caught who did this. It’s changed Philip. He is more cautious, he’s wary, always looking round.

“We have been married 30 years. He has never been a sharp man or said a nasty word to me but he does now. It’s not his fault, he doesn’t realise he’s doing it but he’s quick tempered. He’s got a short fuse - whoever was in that car did that to him. It hurts what they did, it’s hurt us all. I just hope people will read this and grass up whoever did this. We want justice. It won’t make things better overnight but it will help start the healing process. There was no need for them to run Philip over, they could have just jumped out of the car and run for it and that would have been the end of it.”

Mr Stead said: “It would be good to have a name for who did it. I don’t feel any horribleness towards them but it’s brought a lot of pain to me and my family. It should never have happened. I’ve never done anyone wrong.”

Anyone with any information should call Bradford CID on 101 or anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.